S&P 500 hovers at record levels, heads toward winning week: Live updates

Stocks were mostly little changed, but the S&P 500 managed to tick higher as the benchmark index heads for yet another weekly gain during the holiday-shortened trading week.

The broad-market index traded higher by about 0.1% on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 94 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%.

The S&P 500’s rally this year has grown to 16% with the benchmark on pace for its fourth positive week in the last five as investors bet any economic weakness later this year will be met with a Federal Reserve rate cut.

Widely monitored labor data released Friday morning reflected a 206,000 increase in nonfarm payroll adds in June and a slight uptick in the unemployment rate, which rose to 4.1%. Economists expected the jobless rate to remain steady at 4%.

Treasury yields fell following the report on expectations the uptick in unemployment would spur the Fed to cut interest rates later this year.

“On one hand, the downward revisions to prior months and the rise in the unemployment rate raises the odds of a September Fed rate cut – bond markets are certainly celebrating this,” Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, said. “But those same figures cannot help but prompt a twinge of concern about the direction of the U.S. economy. The broad host of economic data all point to a softening – today’s report adds to that picture.”

In other trading news Friday, Nvidia shares dropped 0.6% following a rare Wall Street downgrade, which cited limited upside for the chipmaker. The stock is still up 2.6% for the week. Tesla rose 1%, adding to its whopping week-to-date gain of more than 25%.

ADP figures released Wednesday showed less private payroll growth than anticipated in June, and weekly jobless claims came in higher than economists forecast. On top of that, a reading of the service sector from the Institute for Supply Management unexpectedly indicated a contraction.

Nonetheless, the three major indexes are on track to finish the week in the green.

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 have climbed more than 3.2% and 1.6% in the week, respectively. Both closed at all-time highs and notched new intraday records on Wednesday. The Dow has lagged this week, adding around 0.3%.

Markets were closed Thursday for Independence Day.